{'Mary Rose'}[27th December 1987]

[Redbook4:266-267][19871227:2125]{'Mary Rose'}[27th December 1987]

19871227.2125

Fiction writing is full of coincidences, not only between fiction and later actuality, but between fictions: and some of the last must be due to knowledge normally obtained* but unconsciously recalled.

I am aware that [...]land is likely to have owed something to the Celtic Green Isle of the Great Deep, and I have speculated that J.M. Barrie's Never Never Land arose from the same cultural memory. But I am not aware of having even heard, until this year, of his play 'Mary Rose', of which I have just watched all except the first twenty minutes or so, with its Peter Pan resonances; its strange Hebridean island on which people disappear, sometimes to reappear days or even years later, unchanged – only to become (by some uncertain process) ghosts for a while**; and the curious co-incidence that the name of the family to whose daughter all this happens is Morland.

But I am quite capable of having come across these facts and 'forgotten' (or lost) them: though it is unlikely that I [have] actually read the play. I feel that a play of such interest to me – even before [...]land – is likely to have stayed available to my conscious recollection. But I could be wrong.

*[i.e. obtained in a normal way]

**before departing for a Heaven not all that unlike the island

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{The Working Week [continued]}[27th December 1987]

[Redbook4:266][19871227:1000c]{The Working Week [continued]}[27th December 1987]

19871227.1000

[continued]

The distinctive feature of both these weeks* is that they start with a day of organisation and action, followed quickly around the middle of the week by complication and fragmentation; and by Friday the week is generally collapsing. By contrast, the Inner Circle week – whose pattern is likely to be far less obvious – begins through Love, Revelation etc. and ends through (Inner) Action and Harmony. Sunday** (Unity) is an integral part of this week. It starts – as Inner Circle activities generally start – in quietness[,] and contemplation of the matter in hand.

*[See last previous entry.]

**[or presumably, Saturday for Jewish adherents, and Friday for Muslims. (See last previous entry.)]

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{The Working Week}[27th December 1987]

[Redbook4:265-266][19871227:1000b]{The Working Week}[27th December 1987]

19871227.1000

[continued]

So far as human occupations are concerned, the (Western) week is cast in much the same pattern: it might have been fitted into the Outer Circle like this, in Christian times:

			C
			Sunday
	R				S
	Saturday				Monday
G			☼			M
	Friday				Tuesday
	J				U
		Thursday		Wednesday
			A

[In this and the next chart the weekdays are more equidistant round the circle than represented here.]

I suppose the Jewish week would be rotated one day clockwise; and the Muslim week a further day clockwise?

Now that Christianity is, practically speaking, a minority religion in many Western countries, the Western week might look more like this:

			C
		Saturday		Sunday
	R				S
	Friday				Monday
G			☼			M
	Thursday				Tuesday
	J				U
			Wednesday
			A

– Saturday and Sunday now having equal status: by *Sunday, in fact, we are already thinking about Monday.

*{(the time we get to)}

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{Particular Patterns}[27th December 1987]

[Redbook4:265][19871227:1000]{Particular Patterns}[27th December 1987]

19871227.1000

But what is all this nonsense* but to say that people need relaxation after hard work? Nothing, really; except maybe an interest in the patterns that human (and other) activities take – the particular patterns.

*[See last two previous entries – & next entry.]

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{The Daily Grind [continued]}[26th December 1987]

[Redbook4:264][19871227:0040c]{The Daily Grind [continued]}[26th December 1987]

{26}

19871227.0040

[continued]

What would happen to Outer* Circle workers who do not 'unwind' at the end of the day?** I guess they continue 'hyped up' *** at c.A~ during the night and continue to wind up day by day until they unwind suddenly and uncontrollably; or slow down despite themselves; or stop, jammed solid; or just stop.

Maybe they in fact 'unwind' on the Inner (Queens)**** Circle during the night and sleep? Perhaps the relaxing evening (is 'unwind' inappropriate to that Knights stage?) simply makes this possible?

*(I continue to call Knights 'Outer' – but not Knaves) [<871227>?]

**[See last previous entry.]

***{?}

****(I continue to call Queens 'Inner' – but not Kings) <871227>

[But see next entry!]

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{The Daily Grind}[26th December 1987]

[Redbook4:263-264][19871227:0040b]{The Daily Grind}[26th December 1987]

{26}

19871227.0040

[continued]

The 'Life Circles' suggestions (p58)* take circles [sic] down to one year. I guess that cycles of a greater frequency than the **Quarter cycles (and possibly the eighth cycles?) may be less closely geared to less (or more) frequent cycles[,] and more independent.

But I can certainly see 3-5 year cycles in jobs etc.; and in principle there might be c.2-year cycles. Cycles more frequent than this one would expect to follow natural periods – or possible artificial ones? The Christmas experience indicates a strong annual cycle; the Moon may well indicate a lunar monthly cycle;*** the work pattern of the week may create a weekly cycle.

I mention this because a chance remark by Clive James in Japan (P[art]II) on television suggests to me a strong Knights Outer Circle pattern of the working day, which needs (in order to recycle itself for the next) to end in the controlled or deliberate fragmentation of the Individual's daytime personality via a good meal into an evening of wine, women and song.****

For those whose daily occupation is of an Inner Circle nature, of course, Harmony would come naturally after (Inner) Action without these aids: Christians might, I suppose, have started their day with song and wine and bread at Holy Communion, which seems to prefer the morning (Is this an argument for Women Priests?).#

*[Redbook4:58][19870819(&20):0000]{Life Circles}[19^th August 1987]

**{=?} [Possibly, approximately 16-year cycles?]

{(See [[Redbook4:58][19870819(&20):0000]{Life Circles}[19^th August 1987]] 58(?))}

***& human work psychology may recognise a calendar month cycle?

****{(for women also....)}

#[!(But see next entry but one.)]

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{Ghost Buster}[26th December 1987]

[Redbook4:263][19871227:0040]{Ghost Buster}[26th December 1987]

{26}

19871227.0040*

I can't help it: I enjoyed [the film] 'Ghost Busters' as much the second time around as I did the first.**

*{See [[Redbook4:275][19880101:2330][{Compartments}][1st January 1988],] p275}

**{It also has a storm – (cf. [[Redbook4:256][19871223:2200c]{Twisters}[23rd December 1987],] p256.}

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{Dreams on Christmas Eve [continued]}[25th December 1987]

[Redbook4:262][19871225:1315c]{Dreams on Christmas Eve [continued]}[25th December 1987]

.1315

[continued]

[d]* was telling us at lunch of a bad dream she had had in which a lorry went on top of her when she was riding her toy tractor to the supermarket.** I often warn [W] (who passed her [driving] test this year) to drive carefully on the way to [our nearest town] and watch out for lorries; I made a particular point of this before she and [d] drove off on Christmas Eve.

*[Aged 2½]

**{cf. [last previous entry] 261. In August 1993[?***] while on the way to Scotland we ran into one of the rear wheels of the tractor unit of a Czechoslovakian lorry which had pulled out in front of us from an industrial estate onto the Oswestry bypass. <[***?]930721>

***[One of these dates must be wrong.]

I didn't enjoy the rest of Christmas Day: inexperience with the Rayburn led to [room] temperatures of 75F, at which I became muddled and could not eat {Christmas Dinner}. Poor [W]! <880101>

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{Dreams on Christmas Eve}[25th December 1987]

[Redbook4:261-262][19871225:1315b]{Dreams on Christmas Eve}[25th December 1987]

.1315

[continued]

In a curious dream last night – having, as it were, re-opened my mind to such things – I avoided an out-of-control lorry,* which disappeared. ** I then saw in a shop{,***} on a box,

(1) something about Dennis Noorden (sic) (I had already seen that he**** has a programme today: 'It'll be alright on Christmas Night'); followed on the next line by

(2) something about Angels;

followed in later lines(?) and a second column by other items.

I then lost [W] and [d] at a station on separate trains, [W] clinging to the outside,# which I was not able to jump on: [W]'s at least was going to Birmingham. I was angry with the Station Master(?), who seemed unable to do anything; but it seemed that I still had the cats.#*

I am unhappy with possible plays on the word 'Birmingham'. On Christmas Eve I had been reading to [W] various dreams from Vol. II [of this journal] which seemed referable to later events, or might still become so: I mentioned to her the tradition that on Christmas Eve some can see the shades or images of those who are to die#**; so I suppose this sort of thing serves me right.

*{See [next entry,] 262}

**The first two items [sic] may have been reversed.

***{?}

****[Dennis Norden]

#{NB}

#*[& [s] presumably (b. Sep). As at the time of posting, [d] and then [W] had left about a decade earlier, leaving behind [s] pro tem, and the then cat.]

#**[during the coming year]

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{Christmas Day}[25th December 1987]

[Redbook4:261][19871225:1315]{Christmas Day}[25th December 1987]

.1315

Actually,* I am rather enjoying this Christmas. There is a fine, rather watery light across the Valley, and under the clouds – which I suppose is appropriate as we enter the Watery Quarter. When you have a family, part of the secret of enjoying Christmas is to think as much as possible about your children's enjoyment** – and this also is as it should be.

*[ref. [Redbook4:257][19871224:1910]{Crisis at Christmas}[24th December 1987];

[Redbook4:258-259][19871225:0004][{Crisis at Christmas (2)}][25th December 1987].]

**cf. [[Redbook4:258-259][19871225:0004][{Crisis at Christmas (2)}][25th December 1987],] 258.

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{Guilt-feelings [continued (3)]}[25th December 1987]

[Redbook4:260-261][19871225:0004d]{Guilt-feelings [continued (3)]}[25th December 1987]

19871225.0004

[continued]

So far as the comments quoted* from 'The Lust to Kill: A feminist investigation of sexual murder' are concerned, 'the ambivalent feelings evoked by sexuality – pleasure and danger, desire and disgust –' are, according to my observation long ago, felt by women as much as, if not more than, by men. And men do not solely project this onto prostitutes (I am not sure whether the authors imply that they do): in many cases they 'project' it onto any woman who is attainable, too easily or at all. It is the mark of less refined type of man. Not all men** even for a moment consider expressing this in violence: the fact that some Men do, and very few (or no) women do, is presumably an expression of the difference in innate psychological*** structure, ****arising out of difference in natural roles, rather than being due to the structure of our society (which probably arises out of the same cause).

*[Presumably, by Patricia Highsmith, writing in the T[imes] L[iterary] S[upplement] that week on Jack the Ripper: see last previous entry.]

**-- or even many men, I guess –

***& physiological? <880307>

****{?–}

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{Guilt-feelings [continued]}[25th December 1987]

[Redbook4:260][19871225:0004c]{Guilt-feelings [continued]}[25th December 1987]

19871225.0004

[continued]

Patricia Highsmith, writing in the T[imes] L[iterary] S[upplement] this week on Jack the Ripper, suggests that 'the Christian Churches in the main seem terrified of sex, and perhaps for good reason: sex is more powerful than anything the church has to offer, except of course to a few rare ascetic types'.* Sloppy language and sloppy thinking: hunger and thirst are as powerful as sex, but the Church seems not nearly so concerned about their proper management and about the avoidance of gluttony. I think the concern of the Church with sex is due not to its simple power as a rival to the Church (as Highsmith implies) but to its destructive capacity if uncontrolled.

*(sic)

[continues]

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{Guilt-feelings}[25th December 1987]

[Redbook4:259-261][19871225:0004b]{Guilt-feelings}[25th December 1987]

19871225.0004

[continued]

In this context* as in others, Circles Analysis leads me to ways I should not otherwise have explored{:}** usually to my greater satisfaction, but sometimes resulting in unresolved internal conflict of aims and attitudes: as in my remaining desire to eat and drink too much at Christmas, and get things.

Similarly despite what I think Circles Analysis suggests about adultery as something to avoid, I am in theory greatly drawn to it – in particular cases – although I think that in practice a sense of niceness or delicacy does and will cause me to draw back, as much as (or more than) does Circles Analysis.

Whether Circles Analysis gives rise to these conclusions out of its own rigorous logic – as it appears to me – or simply as a vehicle for some inhibition or guilt of my own, I could not say. I think, though, that those who claim that religious attitudes to “sin” or immorality arise from guilt-feelings have got the whole thing back to front – no, not back to front, because those with practical experience of convent schools*** who may claim that guilt feelings arise from religious attitudes have also missed the point. We must ask the former where the guilt-feelings come from, and the latter where the religious attitudes are based. Circles Analysis suggests that both arise because to the Soul as well as to the Body such practices are, not simply immoral, but risky.

*[Ref last previous entry]

**[Originally a comma]

***[Presumably, as pupils, at least for the most part]

[continues]

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{Crisis at Christmas (2)}[25th December 1987]

[Redbook4:258-259][19871225:0004]{Crisis at Christmas (2)}[25th December 1987]

19871225.0004

This Circles reading of Christmas* – supported by public, private and personal experience – suggests that it should be recaptured for Holiness not for some vaguely 'moral' or 'religious' reason, but because unless it is properly handled it will continue to feel wrong and give rise to unhappiness. This applies as much to agnostics and even atheists as to worshippers and other believers: Holiness need not, I suspect, require a conscious belief in God.**

It is possible that the origin of the feasting, drinking, presents and other socialising at Christmas may be as much to drown (and bury) our sorrows of Midwinter as to celebrate the Turn of the Year. Eating and drinking are certainly not incompatible with religious experience (any more than are Love and Harmony).

My personal preference is to eat too much, get rather drunk, ***buy a few nice things for myself, and let [W] do all the work. Only recently have I begun to learn – since I started spending Christmas with [W] instead of my previous family****, I think – that I can convert the underlying melancholy into a kind of joy by concentrating willingly on the Circles attributes and qualities of +C†I~.#

*[See last previous entry but one.]

**{!}

***{! But cf. [[Redbook4:261][19871225:1315][{Christmas Day}][25th December 1987],] 261}

****[i.e. parents & siblings]

#cf.III.[e.g.[Redbook3:25-26][19870326:1543d]{The Round House [continued(3)]}[26^th March 1987] ] (early)

[& cf. [Redbook3:140-141][19870407:0940f](CHI-RHO)[7th April 1987]]

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{(Ridicule)}[24th December 1987]

[Redbook4:257][19871224:2345]{(Ridicule)}[24th December 1987]

.2345

(Read Eric Korn in T[imes] L[iterary] S[upplement] this week* and it becomes virtually (or at least temporarily) impossible to consider publishing anything at all).

*(On the effect of desktop publishing on quality of published work – sarcastically.)

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{Crisis at Christmas}[24th December 1987]

[Redbook4:257][19871224:1910]{Crisis at Christmas}[24th December 1987]

.1910

But so far as Christmas is concerned, if matters should be attended to at their appropriate time (rather than at, say, the diametrically opposite time, to balance?) – it is not surprising that Christmas brings so much distress in prosperous homes, since it is as far as can be removed, in the Circle Year, from the time appropriate to material gain; and, of course, it is the real time of Crisis.

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{Chanukah – And Diwali}[24th December 1987]

[Redbook4:257][19871224:1615]{Chanukah – And Diwali}[24th December 1987]

19871224.1615

I note:

(1) From a letter of Mr. Lev Shapiro in The Times yesterday: that December 16^th was 'on the time of Chanukah, which is a real symbol of miracles and freedom for Jews'.

*

(2) From The Times back page today, that Diwali, the Hindu festival of light[,] begins in the Autumn (and now in Southall continues into the festivities of Christmas).

It is astonishing that with all my books on different religions, I have never heard of (or have forgotten) these festivals. Too rarefied,** perhaps?

*And what is the Muslim 'Ids'?

**[The books, presumably.]

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